The Old Kalevala and Certain Antecedents

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For sixteen years Elias Lönnrot, as traveling physician, recorded the traditional songs of unlettered Karelo-Finnish folksingers. The Kalevala of 1849 (HUP, 1963), Lönnrot’s final concatenation of this material, was preceded by two quite different compilations, the so-called Old Kalevala of 1835 and the shorter unpublished collection now known as the Proto-Kalevala. These two works are here translated into English for the first time, together with certain earlier materials.